Obama - Bayh -- The ticket that almost was.
The new book, The Audacity to Win by Obama campaign manager David Plouffe reveals that it was a coin-toss between Joe Biden and Evan Bayh for the VP slot on the Obama election ticket.
For political junkies, the disclosure about the VP selection process is fascinating. Barack Obama considered Hilary Clinton much more seriously than his advisors anticipated. But in the end, the President-to-be determined that there would always be a third person -- Bill Clinton -- in the relationship, and t Hilary was dropped from the final list.
The final 3 were Biden, Bayh and Virginia governor Tim Kaine. After final interviews by David Axlerod and Plouffe, their conclusion was that Kaine simply was too inexperienced, and that adding him to Obama's relative lack of experience would "make it twice as ough for us to roll this boulder uphill."
Biden was viewed as having a stronger upside, but also likely to cause issues with his undisciplined talk-to-much style. Bayh on the other hand was "substantively close to perfect." They viewed Bayh as having less upside but also very little downside.
After hearing the report from Axlerod and Plouffe, Obama said "It's a coin toss now between Bayh and Biden." But as we all now know, the coin toss went for Biden. The fact that Obama would select Biden over the "safer" choice of Bayh is an interesting insight into the President's decision making process.
I've only read the excerpt in Time, but if you have an interest in politics or the Obama campaign, this new book,The Audacity to Win, looks like a must read.
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